Helpful Score: 2
This is a very sad and moving story about a woman who always knew she was an illigitimate child and was treated different, sometimes cruelly, by her mother and stepfather and members of the community. She was never told the hows or whys of her illigitimacy, but now that her mother is dying she is trying to find out. I enjoyed it very much, but the translation could have been better. It was originally written in Dutch. Some of the English phrasing sounds strange, like they translated verbatim, and not for feeling. Still, I enjoyed it and would recommend it.
Read about 4 chapters and just couldn't get into it. Switches back and forth between past and present without preamble, so can be a bit confusing. Very melancholy and hopeless sort of tone. Surely it gets better, but I just couldn't wait!
Children of dying parents sometimes have things that need to be resolved. For fifteen year Ika has stayed away. Her sister Nelly writes to say, come home, it's time, mother won't be here long.
Conflicted by her past, Ika, does go home. The cover on this book reminded me of my own grandmother's garden. I good read.
Conflicted by her past, Ika, does go home. The cover on this book reminded me of my own grandmother's garden. I good read.
Written at an eigth grade level.
Johannna Verweerd is Holland's most beloved Christian novelist!
